Sunday, September 25, 2011

Still in Navarathri Golu mood. I wanted to share some papercrafts I made for our library's golu. The quilled lamps are but 6mm in diameter , I rolled scrap book paper for the lamps and quilling paper for the flame . All the kind ladies there were so delighted with it . The scene depicts a festival where lamps are lit and placed on leaves and are let afloat on water. The water itself I made from hand made paper.

This is not a real shirt but a tiny origami shirt less than two inches in length.I made the shirt with pattern paper for a scene where new clothes are gifted to newly weds. I found the tutorial on you tube.

This is a miniature Mulaipari( During festivals seeds of nine grains are let to sprout in a vessel in the dark) and then the vessels are carried on the head in a procession . This is done as a worship for rain and fertility.

My part of this year Golu is the story of birth of river Cauvery. Me and my friend completed the steps with scenes which tells the story. This is the main scene where Cauvery starts flowing.I made the mount with themocol and then painted with acrylic paints and then for the water I used handmade paper crushed and folded with the help of water and glue. According to the story the sage is carrying a divine girl after transforming her into water in a small vessel. But when he is meditating in the forest with the vessel beside him a crow(which is lord Ganesha in the form of a crow) knocks the vessel over and she flows down as the river Cauvery. Since I started working for our library's golu I have learnt a lot of mythological stories. We have a senior member who is so knowledgeable about these stories she also researches them thoroughly . She suggests the topic , tells us the stories and then guides us through . I am really fascinated by these stories and love working for the golu.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Hi everyone , I don't have much to share because I don't have time to quill these days. Navarathri Golu preparations are on at our library and I am trying to do justice to my part of the work there. I am also in the middle of my kids exams which means even less internet time for everyone.

One of my dear friends who always has a beautiful golu at her home every Navarathri asked me to make this for her . This is a miniature pond of Madurai Meenakshi temple with lotus flowers with the center one being a golden one. It is called Porthamarai or golden lotus pond.

The temple has mention in Tamil literature for more than two thousand years ,As legend has, new literature was tested by placing it on the surface of the pond(written on palm leaves) , weak literature sunk whereas good literature floated.There is also this story that Thiruvalluvar's Thirukkural was rejected by the Sangam poets for not following the prevailing rules for poetries of that time, and thrown into the porthamarai kulam , but Thirukkural came to the surface on a golden lotus.The Thirukkural though written more than two thousand years ago ,is relevent even to this day and is the most translated book in the world second only to the Bible. For the water I used a hand made paper . For the one step that I have made for the pond it is a shadow box made from a thick paper and I stuck red colour strips all around at regular intervals as it is seen in temple ponds. For the gold lotus I cut gold colour paper but the edges were not golden ,I painted the edges with acrylic gold colour. The rest are flowers made from 2mm paper pink strips . I have not stuck the flowers I will give it to my friend and she can arrange them just as she wants .The entire pond is about six inches in length and the flowers are really tiny. My friend did not want any leaves. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

Friday, September 9, 2011

I wish all my friends from Kerala a happy Onam. This quilled picture did start with my intention to quill something with the onam theme. Scenes of Kerala always show coconut trees and back waters, I started with qulling the coconut trees(they are coconut trees). I wound brown colour strips around an empty refill to make the tree trunk and fringed the leaves. I rolled some strips cut from scrap book paper for the coconuts.

For the solid land I cut brown colour handmade paper in random widths and rolled them by hand and stuck them .Handmade paper when cut into strips have edges that do not have a uniform colour and this gave texture to the coils. For the water I crimped four different colours strips , light blue, dark blue , light green and white (the colours were Abi's idea). I stuck them in a wavy fashion to give the appearance of water and ripples. This picture reminds me of drawings I made as a kid. I am happy the way this turned out .

I edited my picture in Picasa and gave the frame to the picture which is a new feature in picnik.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Lord Ganesha or Pilliayar is widely revered as the remover of obstacles and the lord of new beginnings.

This elephant face God is represented in so many amazing ways. Peepal leaves with the proper shapes are arranged to represent this God. This design has found it's way in paintings and kolams and I have attempted it with quilled peepal leaves.

I made all the leaves separately and then arranged them.

On this day of Ganesha chaturthi lord Ganesha is worshiped for knowledge , good health and prosperity.

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About Me

I am a stay at home mom of two wonderful boys.I live in Chennai, India.I like crafting with paper and the art of paper quilling fascinates me. . I like to share my experiments with the paper strips through my blog.
For Orders and classes Email - quillingdreams@gmail.com